Posted
by
timothyon Thursday February 14, 2013 @07:03PM
from the anything-that-keeps-the-lizard-happy dept.

First time accepted submitter BadassFractal writes "I'm in the market for a new large desktop monitor (or two) which I intend to use almost exclusively for programming and all sorts of software development-related work. I'm trying to keep the cost down reasonable, and I do enjoy as large of a resolution as possible. What do people 'in the know' out there use these days for that purpose? I'm thinking a 1920x1200 24" would be good, unless there's an affordable 2560xFoo option out there. I keep hearing about nameless Korean 27" screens, any thoughts on those?"

2 monitors are much better than 1 large monitor in my experience, but that may mostly be because of the habits I've gotten into. Newer versions of windows work a bit better with single monitors, but its still not as convenient as having 2 separate ones.

I'm glad someone else gets it - many tasks are suited to length rather than width. Whenever a company supplied me with 'pivotable' monitors, I used to get strange looks in the office, even from supposed techies, about why one of my monitors was rotated pi/2.

Monitors that come with a pivotable base aren't the norm, so perhaps it's worth investing in one of those dual vesa mounts that clamp to one's desk. They're typically adjustable for a variety of angles.

I'm doing a lot of work with wireshark, analyzing logs from serial consoles and stuff like that, so that configuration suits me perfectly.
I also get this mediaval castle feeling because I'm perfectly shielded from my coworkers!

OS X has a standard option in display preferences to rotate the display 90, 180, or 270 degrees. (no special software to install, that might come with a rotatable display, for windows os) It doesn't offer mirroring though, I was rather expecting to see that option. The rotation option is only available for external displays, not built-in. (imac and laptop) So you can rotate as long as you can find a way to physically rotate your display. (OS X does offer Negative however, which may have its uses on a projector)

I need to test on an Apple display to verify that it adjusts the sub-pixel kerning correctly when rotated. I'm expecting it to either adjust, or disable kerning. Those displays you can detach the foot and attach a vesa adapter, and that will hook to a vesa arm or wall mount in any of the four standard rotations.

oookay, science done. Result: Apple fails!:P Sub-pixel kerning continues, but does not adjust for the new pixel orientation. pictures [vftp.net]. That "W" is on the screen right side up. The two 0 deg show it with the display at 0 degrees. The display is then told to rotate 90 degrees, and an averaging picture (with pixie) is taken as well as another digital camera pic.

Look carefully at 90_deg_avg.png at the/\ part of the bottom of the W, visible on the right. Both the / and the \ are on the TRAILING edge of the pixel, which should cause them to have a blue tint, but one is red and one is blue, indicating incorrect SPK. If the W were on its side on the 0 degree picture, both of those edges would have a blue tint to them, a bit like you see on 0_deg_avg.png when you look at the right pocket on the upper left of the W, it's all blue. Or when you compare the right side of the leftmost / and the leftmost \ strokes, again they are both correctly blue despite being opposite slopes. I guess I have a bug to report;)

And I'd still like to hear from someone with deeper Windows OS experience that can comment on sub-pixel kerning support.

oookay, science done. Result: Apple fails!:P Sub-pixel kerning continues, but does not adjust for the new pixel orientation.

And I'd still like to hear from someone with deeper Windows OS experience that can comment on sub-pixel kerning support.

I haven't tested on the newest variants, but at least by default XP also fails. (thus the question about do those exist ^.^) I do wonder if with Windows 7 or 8 you could get clear type working by going to Adjust ClearType text and selecting the specific monitor in Pivot. I doubt that it helps, as the problem isn't really RGB vs BGR (which I believe it does handle), but vertical vs horizontal subpixel layout, and at least based on http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/subpixel.php [lagom.nl] at least Vista did not support thos

It's a shame 4:3 and 5:4 monitors are so hard to find. That solves both the length and width issues when coding. I find one 4:3 is good enough to replace two 16:9 (one of which is portrait).

I'm also a huge fan of a low dot pitch, which also seems to have gone the way of the dodo these days. I'd rather code on a 15" 1600x1200 over a monstrous 27" 2560x1440 any day.

My setups are otherwise similar when I'm required to use 16:9 monitors. Otherwise, I'll go with a pair of old 4:3 whenever I have a choice. I'm usually significantly more productive on those than on the 16:9 (having to drag the right window to the right monitor is a huge distraction).

2560x1440 is more pixels in EVERY direction. How is that *worse* than 1600x1200? Hell, think of 2560x1440 as two 1280x1440 displays side by side... *much* better than 1600x1200.

He's talking DPI, or density of the pixels. A 15" 1600x1200 monitor will have SMALLER pixels, than a 27" 2560x1440. Yes there maybe less pixels overall, but being smaller, the fonts* will appear less jaggy, which is a big concern for serious coders who stare at text all day.

* Of course, if the font is too small, it can be sized up in the editor, and STILL not be jaggy.

Whereas I concede your point to a degree, most of us with non 20:20 vision have a set focal distance for comfortable reading, regardless of font size. I couldn't code on a 50" plasma from 8 feet away no matter how big the font was - it would give me a headache.

I have 2xU2211H, both oriented portrait. I can see having one landscape if you need to work on video or something, but I don't.

I'd always go for the smallest display at a given resolution, to get the highest DPI: I much prefer 22" 1920x1080 to 24" 1920x1080. Still, I wish someone would make 200+ DPI desktop displays. Some day.

"don't see the point in going up to even 22" on a desktop. To compensate for the slight increase in view distance maybe a 19", but no more"

You can't get 1920x1080 at 19" or 20", unfortunately. At least not that I've found. Standard res at 19" and 20" is 1600x900. Basically, it's just about impossible to buy a desktop monitor higher than around 100dpi: it's a barrier. If you look at where the resolution jumps happen, it's _always_ at around 100dpi. The smallest monitor you can usually buy these days is 18.5"

A widescreen 27" monitor is fine for portrait windows. I typically have some terminal windows, web browsers, and PDF windows open, and most of them are portrait. The advantage of the landscape monitor is that I can fit them side by side easily. There's easily space for a couple of portrait-A4 windows on the screen for documentation / procrastination and for my terminals floating either below or between them.

The main reason for landscape monitors is that most humans have two eyes that are next to each ot

Why the fuck does everybody insist on reading these things full-screen?
A sheet of A4 paper is far smaller than my screen.
The A4 paper was probably printed on a printer at 1200 DPI. Your monitor is probably lucky to have 100 DPI. Depending on font and other factors, it may be necessary to zoom in on your monitor to be able to read the A4 document.

Indeed, more is definitley better. If you own 5 monitors scattered over a couple of PCs and a couple of laptops (pretty conservative here) . Between cheap old dual head cards that you certainly already own, Synergy (google that if you have to), and/or Zonescreen ( everyone really needs this, it even works with my HP touchpad) you can get that evil genius wall of data effect.:)

I can relate to your vertical needs but not to *grandparent's complaint that 30" is too big.

I'm not using any fancy IDEs. Screen, vim, and make do the trick. Also running Ratpoison so split vertical and now I have 2 vertical spaces good for a browser to render my work; and with sufficient width to easily still be useful for code editing.

Seconded - one portrait. Amazing how much it makes your life easier a lot of the time.Of course, if you have the space, keeping a third one, (maybe your old monitor) is good too.I use it keep track of mail, VoIP and messages without having to tab between screens.

Of course, it still sucks that as standard win 8 only shows you the task bar on your 'main" monitor.

Eh... I'd say it's awesome that, out of the box, Win8 supports taskbar (and wallpaper, if you care) spanning across monitors. That used to require a third party utility. I love that it's finally supported in-box.

I agree, layout of most apps are designed for a certain screen shape. When you only have a single larger monitor, maybe 50% more area, you wind up with two abnormally skinny apps side by side or on top of each other. Two regular sized monitors are better IMO

Also, 1920x1080 monitors are the defacto now just about, and you will get a better $/pixel value getting two of those instead of one less common resolution.

Just make sure you get a monitor that works well in potrait. Many (even those that come with stands that swivel to portrait) look like shit in portrait mode. Something about the eyes seeing it at slightly different angles.

I'm not sure what spec to look for when finding a portrait-friendly screen, perhaps someone can enlighten me.

I've been using variations of this (non) integrated development environment for more than 15 years, current version:

- 2x24" running linux with up to eight 130x80 rxvts in up to 48 desktops to use vim and make in...
- 2x22" running linux with VM / windows for surfing, email etc
- 2x19" with kvms to the multitude of test systems on the lab bench

The first system uses fvwm simply because I like its multi-desktop pager and I haven't bothered to update it for the last te

I too prefer a pair no matter the size. When developing in something like Visual Studio I have to run it in full screen. So the second monitor gets used for e-mail, web browser, references, etc.

I use 2 U2711 at home and it's wonderful. I also use a 17" alongside those. I use the smaller monitor for consoles or running something like uTorrent. Some people get caught up on the whole 16:10 vs. 16:9 issue, but at 2560x1440 there's plenty of vertical resolution there.

At work I use a pair of 22" 16:10 monitors. That's an ok setup and I've been using something similar at three jobs now. I'm considering picking up another pair of 27" monitors to use at work though. Either the 2713HM or perhaps some of the cheap Korean ones. Perfect color isn't a must for me when coding, so I don't need the 2711 or the better 2713 model.

I used to agree with you, and was religious about getting dual 24" 1920x1200s for my setups (usually Acer). However, last time I upgraded my home machine I finally decided to bite the bullet and shell out the 1k for a 2560x1600 30" (in my case, a DoubleSight DS-309W).. and I could not be happier. The difference in vertical screen space is surprisingly noticeable, and it just about fills my useful-field-of-view at about 22-24" viewing distance, so I don't find myself having to turn my head very much. I have

I actually have one of those 27" 2560x1440 ("WQHD") IPS monitors from Korea. $290 USD, included DHL express shipping (about 48 hours after it left the warehouse in Seoul to reach me in Seattle) via eBay. It's wonderful. Bright and clear, glossy screen but bright enough that reflections and background light are no problem, good stand, and simple but functional on-screen display. The DPI is nothing amazing, but it's comparable to my old 18" 1920x1080 monitor, and that's fine by me. I don't use the 5W speakers it has built in, so I can't say how those are.

The monitor does have a minor defect where if left turned on too long (several days straight) it will start getting "sparkles" on a black screen, but this is easily fixed by power-cycling the monitor or just turning it off every night (it starts very quickly, so that's no problem). It can also get pretty warm (especially at max brightness) and has a large-ish power brick (with a plug designed for Korean outlets, though they included a USA adapter for me at no extra charge) rated for 120W output.

Contrast is good but not incredible, but the lighting is very even. The in-plane switching works great; response time is excellent and the viewing angle is superb (the ~1/4" bezel gets in the way before the screen noticeably changes color). Color and saturation look good to my eye (untrained, but an amatuer photographer); it is something I look at and check calibration on.

I plan to buy a second one... just as soon as I figure out where I'm going to put it. I may just get a 1440x900 (or similar) instead and put it in portrait mode next to the big one. Otherwise, I'll probably need wall mounts; I'm running out of desk space.

One note of caution: It requires a dual-DVI input. That means no driving two monitors off one DVI connection, and many HDMI adapters, etc. won't work.

I recommend a Hanns-G/Hannspree HZ281HPB [google.com] 28-inch 16:10 monitor. You won't likely find a new unused one now, but it isn't hard to find them used or refurbed on eBay. I bought two from different sources on eBay for about $200 each. I can't remember what computing was like before this. I almost bought a third for gaming, but I do very little FPS gaming and most of the games I play wouldn't benefit much from being strung across three monitors.

I'll second that, I'm not sure that is the specific model that I own but it looks like it. I also got 2 of them, for $300 each at the time, and have one in portrait and one in landscape. Great for programming on, gaming is good also. Not a single broken pixel in either monitor, but the primary monitor does occasionally flicker just after I turn it on.

I recently finally bought a dual-monitor stand (for US$20 with $40 rebate) for mine, and it includes the ability to rotate them, so now I can finally do that, too. I don't need portrait mode all the time, but it's nice to be able to get it on the fly as needed with just a few moments of effort. (The only downside was that the support column was IMHO too short, requiring that I either leave the desk below them completely clear or clamp the thing to a secondary stand of wood... which I will likely build in

Personally I find dual 19" monitors to be both cheaper, and more usable than a single large screen. Work is usually divided between 1 primary monitor where I have my actual code, and 1 monitor that is being used to display information, references, email, IMs, etc. Combined with some software like Winsplit [winsplit-revolution.com] (No affiliation, just an awesome free product that I've used on every computer I've touched in the past 8 years) you can organize a large number of windows in ways that make sense very quickly. Obviousl

Nice colors, pretty docile, good motivator. Can't complain about this monitor!
See for yourself http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengal_Monitor [wikipedia.org]
Oh! You mean like, a monitor monitor, the hardware kind? Um... Lemme get back to you. I think it's an HP from the days of old...

I've been using an HP zr24w for over a year, and it's pretty great. It's also got a great stand that lets me pivot the display 90 degrees if I want to. Another good thing about it is it's a standard gamut display, so any web design I do on it won't look weird on regular computers. I had a wide gamut display for a while, and often the colors I'd choose based on that display didn't exist on regular displays, and thus looked very different.
The important points, though are: IPS display, and matte coating.

The 27" Korean's are nice screens. For the most part they are the A- grade of the same ones going in to monitors that are twice to 3 times as much. You might have to live with a dead pixel or two, but I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Agreed; I quite like mine. No dead pixels, though pixels will "sparkle" (not sure how else to describe it) if left on for a few days; power cycling or turning it off at night avoids this problem. Otherwise, it's great; beautiful and bright, good color and contrast, good response time. 2560x1440 is a good aspect ratio and plenty of vertical pixels. Cost was $290 USD on eBay, including DHL express shipping (48 hours from warehouse in Seoul to my place in Seattle) and an included adapter for US outlets (the po

I'm really happy with my two Samsung SA450s. I paid under AU$300 each for them, and they rotate, so it's a pair of 1920x1200 screens, one sideways for code. With a decent graphics card (I splurged and got one that costs about the same as one of the monitors so I could have two separate DVI links) it's a nice programming rig. The sideways one gets over 100 lines of code on screen at a readable resolution.

When they finally bought me a second monitor at work it was a widescreen format. That didn't work all that well with the existing 4x5 aspect ratio. So I took my new monitor and turned it 90 deg. Thankfully the mount supported this. So now I have my original monitor for general web/mail and my new monitor is where the coding gets done. Having a monitor that has 50% more vertical real estate is awesome for working on code and documents.

The size isn't as important as the orientation (queue the jokes). Two wide screen monitors, one setup as landscape, and one as portrait. It's actually a great setup for anything that involves reading or writing.

NEC LCD2490WUXi2-BK 24"...if you can find one. I bought mine used about six months ago for surprisingly little when my NEC 19 inch tube monitor finally bit the dust. It's color accurate and 1200 pixels tall. (I have a hard time working on "HDTV" monitors. They're too short.) It's a little thicker and heavier than modern flatscreens, but I don't mind at all.

I bought 2 IBM T221s [wikipedia.org] on ebay and have them setup as a dual monitors for my desktop. It's like programming on 2 giant iPad rentias. The new macbook pros [youtube.com] can drive of one these monitors.

I currently use 2x HP ZR2440w at work and 2x Dell 2408WFP at home. I actually prefer the HP's, for what it's worth. I will be replacing the Dell monitors at home with either 2x27" 2560x1440, or possibly 3x. One annoying thing about dual monitors is when you're gaming you have to look at either the left or right one. It's very slight, but it kind of bugs me.

You could also consider doing whats called a "PLP" setup, for portrait/landscape/portrait. Here's an example [imageshack.us].

I have one of the Korean 27" screens - they seem to be generally great. I went for a slightly higher end model to get HDMI etc, and I have no dead pixels at all. I can see slight variation in the backlight when it's full white but I've seen it at least that bad on every monitor I've ever owned (costing a lot more than this). Highly recommended (and if you don't want to go the eBay route, monoprice are now rebadging these themselves!).

I like having two screens. The main screen has most of my work stuff, and has multiple virtual-desktops. The secondary screen is static, and shows mostly mail, irc, todo lists, and a secondary firefox window for reference stuff. (I use Gnome 3, but presumably most window managers have that option, although I moved to Gnome 3 after 10 years with FVWM, but it had become too annoying to configure correctly)

Nice to get a large monitor. But there are a few things to keep in mind.

If you get a 27" monitor, it had better be very high resolution (2560 x... or more). If you get a 27" with only, say, 1920 x 1200, it has to be too far away before it will look halfway decent. Maybe farther than the width of your desk. You're paying more money for less functionality.

Contrast ratios are touted to be in the many millions to one, these days. Big deal. As long as it's over 100,00 to 1, you probably won't notice the d

The U2412M is a competetively priced 24" 1920x1200 IPS screen with moderate anti-glare. (Less aggressive than U2711/U2410.) I have the older brother of this screen (U2407WFP) and have been coding on it for ages.

The 27" 2560x1440 monitors all have advantages and disadvantages, but the ViewSonic VP2770 seems like the best of the lot overall. It has no PWM in the backlight, has good uniformity, good quality panel, decent inputs, antiglare isn't too aggressive, no crosshatching or image retention (the main flaws of the U2713). The main downside is the price since it doesn't really go on sale like some of the others.

Take a look at the display forum on hardforum.com if you haven't already.

As for multiple monitors...I find one large monitor better than two smaller ones.

Monoprice.com is going to start stocking house-branded 27" ($400) and 30"($600-$700) IPS panels for a DEEP discount in March. Same LG panels as used in Apple Cinema Display. Monoprice is a great company and wouldn't call what they are offering nameless Korean screens. Here is a link http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=ips [monoprice.com]

I haven't heard anything bad about Monoprice, but the question with buying monitors is always: what is their policy on bad pixels? Answer: up to five dead pixels are allowed, no mention of stuck pixels.

Some of the Korean shippers will let you pay a little extra for a monitor with no bad pixels.

At work they bought us each two of the HP LA2405x, which is 1920x1200. Looks like they're currently going for about $260 on Newegg. It's not bad, they get the job done and the resolution is definitely a plus. However, my fiance and I each bought ourselves an Asus PA248Q right after Christmas, and it is by far my favorite monitor. I think we paid just under $300, there was a good sale on them at Fry's. I really love the IPS even if it is just e-IPS, and the stand itself is very sturdy and easy to manipu

I had a nice 24" Dell - no complaints, especially since the company provided it - but I bought a 24" Apple LED Cinema Display for personal use. It's a few years old so it doesn't have the latest ports, but I'm on this just about all day and love it. When I ran a day-to-day business for computer support, I often recommended Acer monitors: they were nice, and not all that expensive, but it's been a few years since I've worked with them.

I write which has the same issue. Most monitors even name brands do a poor job of displaying text sharply. I always go to Fries Electronics and go down the row scanning for sharp text and solid blacks. The best monitor for the money I used in the past was discontinued. I hate to use the "A" word but Apple monitors are solid if a bit pricey. In the non Apple world I like the Dells, once again pricey. Apple's I don't like the color balance so much and they tend towards the gray side, Retina displays are very

It is a very bright, and I think it looks quite amazing. It is especially amazing at its sub-$350 price point. I'm pretty jealous of it, but my laptop lacks the dual link DVI port required for driving one of these displays. I would really like to upgrade from my pair of 1080p monitors to a pair of these!
He wrote about his 27" 2560x1440 monitor on his blog. [brianmoses.net]

Mine are from Auria bought from MicroCenter. They are 27inches and have a glossy finish which you may not like on your screen if you have things that could reflect behind you. Neither one had a single dead pixle and after about 2months of use I really like them. The stands did NOT allow for pivoting but I'm using a dual stand off of Amazon anyway so I could pivot if I needed to. You MUST use the included DVI cables as they're apparently some new version

If it is something with an IDE like Java, of something running on websites, two large monitors(1080p+) are great. If it is something like C++ with the gcc tool chain, I am more interested in high contrast and monitors just wide enough to fit four or six 80 character width terminals with bold text ( for me, 1280x1024 is fine).

3- 24" 1920X1200 monitors. It is getting HARD to find 4:3 monitors nowdays with the useless Widescreen trend. Works fantastic, I can have multiple Xterms open as well as multiple VM's Makes it all a breeze.

I personally use a 50" TV as a computer monitor. However, another reason to be wary of TV's is many have overscan, which basically will cut off the edge of your screen. You will have to configure a custom resolution that compensates or use scaling(which degrades image quality).

Majority of TV's will be 1920x1080 because that's standard HD. So the larger screen size doesn't buy you more screen, just makes it bigger so you can sit farther away.

A second drawback of many TVs is decreased chroma resolution; while some will output pixel-perfect just like a regular monitor, many are stuck working internally in 4:2:0 somewhere in the image processing pipeline.

My Panasonic 32" HDTV has an option to turn off the overscan so I can use it perfectly as a monitor. It even has an older dsub/vga input so I can hookup older PCs.

The difference is the pixels are less squarish because of a cheaper filter technology (more expensive TVs come with a better filter and result in monitor-like pixels) and the colors are slightly over-saturated. Despite this I am happy with it because I can sit 1 foot further away from the TV, and since I have it mounted into the wall above my de

I suppose it is if you've never seen a widescreen film at its native resolution before....

Besides, if you get a 1920x1080 display and put it in portrait mode (which requires not buying the cheapest one you can, admittedly), it's actually better for reading stuff like webpages/documents than a 4:3 monitor is, even if the 4:3 is in portrait.

Pretty much this. I got given one (attached to the laptop) for my first programming gig. I think it was an accident and they handed me an "executive" class laptop, but I just hemmed and hawed about having so many tools set up on it that it would probably cost them more in terms of time to take it back. Which was true anyway.

Since then, all the screens I've worked on have had fewer vertical pixels, which to me has been like progress in reverse.

Well unless the submitter is planning on developing iOS/OS X software, perhaps you missed the point about "trying to keep the cost down reasonable" ?

There are such things as VMs, so basic platform isn't too much of a problem. Also, I do most of my Linux programming on a Mac, because I work entirely with scripting languages (Perl, PHP, Python, JavaScript etc.), and it's trivially easy to set up a compatible working environment on OS X.

But you're right - the cost of hardware is very high. The 27" Thunderbolt monitors (and/or iMacs) come with the brand tax applied, as well as some confidence about their construction, quality and engineering. I have 27" iMa

A point so often forgotten in the big-screen discussions. Don't get me wrong, I love a nice 27" monitor, actually I think they are fantastic, just make sure that you can set it low enough (adjustable stand or adjustable table height) so that your neck is comfortable. How tall you are affects things also. A good rule of thumb is that while you look straight forward, the upper edge of the monitor should be under your eye height. Thus, a slightly downward angle is natural for your head.